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Cringe Corner: "Bride of Discord"
by
FS:SotU

Hey guys, wanna hear a joke? So a Horse News writer couldn't sleep. It was 6 in the morning and he had long since given up hopes of getting any shut-eye that night. So he got out of bed, turned on his computer, and spent about an hour listening to a shitty fanfic being read on YouTube.

Movie Maker: A sure sign you're in for a quality video!

What's the joke here? My life.

But since I've already wasted these precious minutes, I may as well give you guys a brief overview of DisneyFanatic2364's "Bride of Discord." "Bride of Discord" is an "audio drama" that is "based on" a fanfic by DisneyFanatic2364. I didn't watch enough of this monstrosity to get a feel for the plot (seriously, 45 fucking minutes of this shit and I don't even know what the plot is), but the general idea I got from the /mlp/ thread was that it mostly revolves around (and I paraphrase) "Discord raping Fluttershy in almost every episode"

I shit you not, they actually called it an audio drama

The fanfic it is "based on" clocks in at 60,688 words and spans 18 chapters. At an average of 250 words per page, this bad boy is around 243 pages long. The description for the story reads as follows:

"What if Discord hadn't been turned to stone by the Mane Six? What if he had escaped? It is three years following their battle with Discord and the Mane Six are happy in their new and comfortable lives, until their enemy returns and will only relieve Equestria of his havoc in exchange for a bride."
If that doesn't turn you off of this story, don't worry. It gets worse. Because, as I've mentioned, this is more than just a shitty fanfic. This is a shitty fanfic that has been adapted for your listening pleasure!

And viewing pleasure! Truly the design team has mastered MS Paint!

And so we get to this focus of this Cringe Corner. "Bride of Discord" the YouTube series currently sits at ten videos, usually garnering around a half million views each. The total length of this series so far is five and a half hours and counting. I only suffered through 45 minutes of this (which, believe me, is 45 minutes more than I wanted to spend watching this), and I think I'll take the five hours I could spend watching this and instead find the nearest church to pray for those who did.

From the looks of things, though, I got me some souls to save...

Truthfully, I'm not sure where to begin with this. The background to the story is weak: Discord magically escapes being hit by the Elements of Harmony from the Season 2 premiere and just sits in a cave for three years. During this time, he also develops a habit of talking to himself. Sound familiar?

After the weak backstory is established, we go three years into the future where apparently Twilight has to help plan the Grand Galloping Gala. One awful plot device later (Oh look, a vague letter from Saddle Arabia that requires Celestia, Luna, and Cadance to immediately go there!) and now Twilight and friends are left alone and in charge of the whole kingdom. Oh, and Shining Armor simultaneously travels with the three princesses while somehow managing to attend the Gala. But, in all fairness, continuity is the least of this story's issues.

The series is riddled with mediocre voice acting, stale cringey jokes, shallow characterization that overemphasizes certain traits of the main characters, and weak dialogue.

Speaking of the voice acting...

I didn't think it was possible to find Pinkie Pie any more annoying than I already do, but boy was I wrong! Also, the story mentions that Fluttershy basically has dudes all over her. If you haven't called bullshit on the poor writing at that point, there's your chance!

The story really started to get weird when it was announced that Cadance was pregnant (pretty nonchalantly too, I might add). That really set the stage for the story's WOW LOOK AT ALL THIS SHIPPING.

But just when you think "Eh, it's just some kid's dumb fanfic, could be worse I guess," they go and make it worse.

Hey guys, do you like Queen?

I can't think of any way to describe the horrors I had to listen to for those two and a half minutes. My favorite part of the entire series was when based Discord interrupted this awful rendition. I bet the viewers agree with me, right?

Run, tracyfaithmarie6! Run while you still can!

Final verdict: I give it a Penn Jillette/10. I think this Anon summed things up rather nicely...

For those of you as masochistic as I am, you can watch the first episode here.

Comments (22)

You know sometimes I'm jealous of people like this because they're making garbage but they're happy with their garbage at the same time.We mock them but at the same time they're probably more happy with themselves then us ;__:

I personally know several people who truly love this series. My own thoughts on it tend to be in line with this article, but it has brought some happiness into their lives, and it's hypocritical of me to feel superior when I tout the virtues of Friendly Horse Show to the normals if I can't allow friends to enjoy their crude Friendly Horse Fanfics.

I've seen most of it, and yeah, it's got a lot of problems, especially early on but eh, it's hardly the most cringe-inducing thing the fandom has created, at least to me--though perhaps I have higher tolerances to this stuff.

That said, some stuff in the story does kind of push it even for me. Most cringey thing, and something that the article didn't get to mention is that in the story Applejack is like hopelessly in love with Spike and there's like this whole subplot where she obsesses over it repeatedly.

I got one of the later videos in my Youtube Suggestions, tried to watch the first episode. Couldn't do it, so I decided to read the actual fic itself.

...I won't say it's the worst FIM fic I've ever read (that 'honor' currently rests between A New Face In Ponyville/If You Can't Beat Em, Eat Em and The Lost Element), but it's pretty.. kinda bad...

The story is kinda saccharine, but at least it's not something as awful as Discord raping Fluttershy, but it's sappy romance is pretty boring. At least it was techincally more fleshed out than Discord's actual reform in KCAFO, but if only that.

It's sad to say that the more interesting romance in that fic was Applejack/Spike and that... yeah. Hard to believe that this fic warranted two or three sequels, let alone an audiodrama.

To me, this doesn't seem pretty cringe-y, but to each their own. At least it's not another Pregnant CMC blog/whatever.

I hate this audio drama a lot I can give them credit for at least attempting to do something but constant style changes the notable plagiarism as it is a retelling of the beauty and the beast and the fact it does not try to hide it oh and lets not forget the stupid legion of dumbfucks who watched this god-awful thing (not counting the people here) who liked this because they not know what's good and what's not but I get them credit for the voice acting in some areas but those areas are very very small

Sorry, but this article I cannot agree with. The writer is bashing a girl who, in all honesty, is an amateur in radio plays. However, what she has done is good for her and for thousands of others. Plus she is doing a sequel, so my point stands.